GLASHÜTTE/BERLIN, FEBRUARY 2019. The iF Design Award is one of the most important design prizes in the world. This year in Hamburg, it was given to Tangente neomatik 41 Update from NOMOS Glashütte.

This new model is based on a classic that is now over 25 years old: Tangente. In 2018, Tangente received a new date ring. Placed on the outer edge of the dial, it displays the entire month at a glance. With this automatic watch developed in-house (design: Michael Paul), NOMOS Glashütte achieved something that happens very rarely in the watch industry: a technical as well as a design innovation.

Only shortly after its release, this is already the second international prize for TangenteUpdate: The same model was awarded the Challenge Watch Prize for its technical and 2/2watchmaking feats at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in November. This latest iF award is the fourth in a row for the Glashütte watchmaking company: Before Tangente Update, NOMOS models Minimatik (2016), Tangente neomatik midnight blue (2017), and Metro neomatik 39 silvercut (2018) also received awards.

Tangente Update from NOMOS Glashütte received high accolades in Geneva last November—and now the spotlight is once again on this innovative timepiece thanks to its brilliantly refined darker revamp.

Glashütte/Berlin, January 2019. Following an outstanding end to 2018, NOMOS Glashütte presents a new version of its successful Tangente neomatik 41 Update model, featuring a dial refined with ruthenium, turning it elegantly dark. The innovative caliber technology and reengineered date display of this model recently won over the jury of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the most important award in the watchmaking world.

The dashing new dial is enhanced with ruthenium, a member of the platinum group and a very rare element. Depending on the light conditions, the color shifts between dark gray and golden brown—with unwavering elegance. The date ring that circumscribes the dial bears two contrasting red markings that frame the current date, a design that is exclusive to NOMOS Glashütte.

“The date shows what this caliber can do,” says NOMOS designer Michael Paul, 44, who gave the Tangente model its Update: “It gives you a sense of the immense watchmaking expertise that went into its construction.” With DUW 6101, the second neomatik movement from NOMOS Glashütte, the watchmaking company has set a groundbreaking new standard. And a very thin one at that, since the caliber measures just 3.6 mm in height. The quick-change date function can be easily set with a slight turn of the crown in either direction.

With a diameter of 41 millimeters, Tangente Update is a large watch, and particularly masculine in its new dial color. This impression is enhanced by a robust stainless steel case and a sapphire crystal back, which displays the richly decorated caliber at work within.

Tangente neomatik 41 Update ruthenium is available at select retailers from spring 2019.

Now it’s official: At the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, NOMOS Glashütte took home an award for Tangente Update. According to the jury, “the Bauhaus watch is equipped with a handcrafted movement of a value far surpassing its price.”

GLASHÜTTE/GENEVA, NOVEMBER 2018. It is regarded by some as the Oscars of the watchmaking industry: the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). NOMOS Glashütte took home one of these prestigious awards for Tangente Update – and is the first non-Swiss manufacturer after A. Lange & Söhne to do so.

The GPHG awards are bestowed by a dedicated body, the Fondation du Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. The GPHG presents its annual awards in a total of twelve categories. Despite many strong contenders, NOMOS Glashütte mastered the recently added “Challenge” category with Tangente neomatik 41 Update. The new take on the classic Tangente is powered by an entirely re-engineered movement—the neomatik date caliber (DUW 6101). Built with an integrated date mechanism, the automatic movement still measures just 3.6mm and features a strikingly slim profile.

Positioned at the outer edge of the movement, the date ring enables an entirely new calendar system: two red markers frame the respective date. The product of fine German craftsmanship and cutting-edge engineering, the innovative new movement has already been registered for two patents.

With the GPHG, the mission of the Fondation du Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève is to promote the values of fine Swiss watchmaking worldwide. Outside Switzerland, it would now appear that Glashütte has been welcomed into the fold. NOMOS CEO Uwe Ahrendt, who accepted the prize on behalf of the company and its watchmakers, is pleased: “Receiving this award is a tremendous honor for a German manufacturer. In the three short decades since the German reunification, we have made great strides in Glashütte, in our own ‘Vallée de Joux en miniature’. I’m proud that our colleagues in Geneva are taking note of that progress.”

105 brands competed at this year’s GPHG awards, among them Tag Heuer, Tudor and, Vacheron Constantin. A total of 195 timepieces were submitted for consideration by the 30-member jury, which included such renowned watchmakers as Philippe Dufour, and 16 winners were chosen.

There’s more to the Tangente Limited Edition than meets the eye. Look closely and you’ll spot a little red dot at 6 o’clock. Paying homage to the ‘Little Red Dot’, this edition of the Tangente represents both the best of Glashütte-based watchmaking and Singaporean-based watch collecting.

This week NOMOS added nine watches to its Tangente collection; a series of limited edition watches to celebrate the centenary of Bauhaus.

The official press release starts with: “Tangente from NOMOS Glashütte is the most widely-known watch from Glashütte; no other model from this town famous for fine watches has been in
production longer. It is often described as a ‘Bauhaus watch’—and now the German Bauhaus movement is turning 100 years old. To mark the occasion, Tangente is available in a nine part
special edition, with each version limited to only 100 timepieces.”

These watches come in three sizes—33, 35, and 38 millimeters in diameter, for men and women alike, and each one comes in every primary color: a sketch paper colored dial, black
numerals and hands, encircled by a ring of red, yellow, or blue. Paul Klee’s sketches were one of the sources of inspiration for these watches.

Wikipedia expains that”: Staatliches Bauhaus (German: [ˈʃtaːtlɪçəs ˈbaʊˌhaʊs], commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. The German term Bauhaus—literally “building house”—was understood as meaning “School of Building”, but in spite of its name and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during its first years of existence. Nonetheless, it was founded with the idea of creating a “total” work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, Modernist architecture and art, design and architectural education. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

Not only this special edition, but all watches from this brand based in the famous heritage town of Glashütte are “timepieces that members of the Bauhaus movement would design and wear today,” NOMOS CEO Uwe Ahrendt is certain. “After all, they went about their work then the same way that we do now when it comes to designing our watches and the R&D that goes into the calibers. By concentrating on the essentials, leaving the superfluous to one side, and being incredibly demanding when it comes to the details that remain. By standing for the highest quality and a different, very contemporary kind of luxury. As well as a particularly beautiful form of ‘Made in Germany’.”

The caliber used is the in-house NOMOS Alpha movement. Read more about it on WatchBase.com.

The models of this special edition, “A Century of Bauhaus”, will be available at authorized NOMOS retailers. With a birthday gift from NOMOS Glashütte — as these watches come with a generous ‘100th anniversary discount’.

Obviously Ace Jewelers in Amsterdam will be selling them and they are taking pre-orders as of today. Click here for more info.